I can't believe that June is only three days away. London is wet and grey and I'm really going to have to turn the central heating on after I've finished my blogging duties.
It's been a busy week. On Tuesday I was involved in two events as part of the Birmingham Young Readers' festival. I took part in a live debate in the morning - I was speaking for the motion that Text Speak Is Destroying the Engligh Language and lost, but I was blown away by all the schools who took part. I was shaking so hard I could hardly hold my microphone, but the teenagers who came on stage to speak for and against the motion were confident and articulate and impressed the hell out of me. And hi to Bethany and her friends!
I've also learnt to knit this week. I've been wanting to learn for years and I knew the only way I'd get round to it was to have a deadline. I'm so goal-orientated! So I pitched a feature about knitting to a magazine and was then told I had four weeks to knit "a really long scarf." I'm also writing something that may never see the light of the day and my main protagonist is a passionate knitter so it was a good way of getting inside her head. It was all going horribly wrong, I couldn't even cast on and then yesterday I had a crash course in the basics from a friend who used to be a knitwear designer. Now I can cast on, cast off, do knit stitch and purl and add in new colours of yarn. I think I might be hooked!
I also took delivery this morning of a hard copy of the first draft of what will be my new book. I always prefer to read on the page and my little printer certainly can't cope with 322 pages, so my editor prints it out for me so I can scribble all over it and scratch out great chunks with my scary red editing pen. I've got a lot of work ahead of me...
And next week I'll be recording a podcast for my US publisher (note to self: try not to swear!) and I'll give you all the details once it's up on the interpipe. I have a horrible speaking voice. I sound like I'm five!
One last thing, I got a comment from someone (sorry, I can't remember your name) asking if I see the covers of my foreign editions? The answer is no! I have a lot of input and creative involvement with my UK covers, get consulted on my US covers, but my actual foreign editions suddenly arrive on my doorstep and that's the first time I get to see the covers. It's just the way it is!
And actually this really is the last thing, anyone who wants to add me as a friend on MySpace, you don't need to ask, just go ahead! 99.9% of the time I will add you back but MySpace pages that take several millenia to load do make both me and my computer cry!
(Why do I feel the need to end all my paragraphs with an exclamation mark?)
Until next week, my sweets
Love
Sarra
(cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Oh, how I adore you, Dory Previn...
Salut pop kids!
So, can I just say that excerpt is spelt just like that. Your task for this week is to spell it correctly and use it in at least one email/text/essay/whatever! And yes, there will be more posted in the coming weeks.
In reply to some of your questions:
* The readers event in Birmingham that I'm taking part in on Tuesday is only for pupils in the schools are are participating in the Young Readers Programme, and tickets are all gone now. Sorry.
* There will be no new books from me until Spring 2007 if you live in the UK. I finished the first draft this week and am just psyching myself up for the Herculean task of actually sprinkling on the re-write dust and making it readable! Of course, if you live in the States, you will be getting new books from me as Diary Of A Crush and Let's Get Lost are out in June and October respectively.
* I'm also getting a lot of emails from girls who live in countries where my books aren't available yet. My publishers are working on various deals around the globe, but all my books are available at www.amazon.co.uk who ship internationally.
* I'm really glad that I'm no alone in my deep dislike of black cherry and the other red-headed step-children of the yoghurt family. My friend Andrea did turn me on to the hard-to-find pink grapefruit flavour. And I'll always be a slut for raspberry!
In other news, Amazon.com are now rolling out a new authors' area on their site. You can check out my profile and blog right here. It's probably stuff you already know, but, hey, it's worth checking out.
I'm expecting a marked downturn in my productivity levels now that Big Brother has started in the UK. Every year I promise that I won't get sucked in to watching a bunch of sociopathic, exhibitionistic wannabes for 13 weeks, but I always do. Isn't Shahbaz the most annoying man alive. And I want to whack Nicky over the head with her bunny ears.
And now I must go. I have books to write and a Eurovision Song Contest shindig to get pretty for...
Love
Sarra
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
So, can I just say that excerpt is spelt just like that. Your task for this week is to spell it correctly and use it in at least one email/text/essay/whatever! And yes, there will be more posted in the coming weeks.
In reply to some of your questions:
* The readers event in Birmingham that I'm taking part in on Tuesday is only for pupils in the schools are are participating in the Young Readers Programme, and tickets are all gone now. Sorry.
* There will be no new books from me until Spring 2007 if you live in the UK. I finished the first draft this week and am just psyching myself up for the Herculean task of actually sprinkling on the re-write dust and making it readable! Of course, if you live in the States, you will be getting new books from me as Diary Of A Crush and Let's Get Lost are out in June and October respectively.
* I'm also getting a lot of emails from girls who live in countries where my books aren't available yet. My publishers are working on various deals around the globe, but all my books are available at www.amazon.co.uk who ship internationally.
* I'm really glad that I'm no alone in my deep dislike of black cherry and the other red-headed step-children of the yoghurt family. My friend Andrea did turn me on to the hard-to-find pink grapefruit flavour. And I'll always be a slut for raspberry!
In other news, Amazon.com are now rolling out a new authors' area on their site. You can check out my profile and blog right here. It's probably stuff you already know, but, hey, it's worth checking out.
I'm expecting a marked downturn in my productivity levels now that Big Brother has started in the UK. Every year I promise that I won't get sucked in to watching a bunch of sociopathic, exhibitionistic wannabes for 13 weeks, but I always do. Isn't Shahbaz the most annoying man alive. And I want to whack Nicky over the head with her bunny ears.
And now I must go. I have books to write and a Eurovision Song Contest shindig to get pretty for...
Love
Sarra
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A message from the bunker...
Hola!
I'm in deep hibernation mode at the moment. I go to the gym in the morning so I don't actually take root behind my desk, then get home and stare at my computer screen for hours. I even write some words! At the moment I'm racing to get the first draft of my new book (part of a four book sequential series) done by about the middle of next week. It's meant to be 65,000 words, but will probably be nearer 75,000 before I start editing and re-writing and cutting huge swathes of it. This means that the DSL cable gets unplugged so I'm not distracted by the interpipe. It's a very solitary existence. I think writing is one of the few occupations where you never get rid of that "I haven't done my homework" feeling.
But as ever, I have stuff to say!
* Thanks for all your comments about the Let's Get Lost excerpt. I always over-write so even though I had to cut about 30,000 words, the book was a lot longer than most teen novels. The 30,000 words didn't really add anything to the story, it was more a case of quantity rather than quality and by cutting out all the extraneous stuff, I think it reads better. I will post a few more excerpts though if you're interested.
* I'd like to officially welcome all my new MySpace buddies! Thank you for all your comments and messages. There's nothing more heart-warming when I'm struggling to write (yesterday I spent three hours on one sentence!) to get a message from one of you. Fr'instance Lauren's comment of yesterday inspired me to bash out another 1000 words, so thanks!
* Both my books and I contain language that some people find offensive. I'm guessing you guys are the same!
* The US editions of Diary Of A Crush are now available to pre-order.
* I'm doing two events at the Birmingham Young Reader's programme on May 23rd. I'm speaking for the motion: Text speak is destroying the English Language for a debate in the morning and then doing a presentation in the afternoon on erm, I think what inspires me. Note to self: Find out for sure. If you're going to be there, please come and say hello. I promise you that my state of nerves will be far worse than yours.
* You all have to go out and buy the new Camera Obscura single, Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken. If you love Belle And Sebastian, then the Cameras will become your new favourite band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night in London and I'm already giddy with excitement.
OK, I have to go now. My goal for today is 5000 words but I'll leave you with my own profound thought of today. Why is it that those four packs of yoghurt always have one flavour that's totally rank? Black Cherry? I'm not feeling it. Mango? Get it out of here.
Apart from that, I got nothing!
Love
Sarra x
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
I'm in deep hibernation mode at the moment. I go to the gym in the morning so I don't actually take root behind my desk, then get home and stare at my computer screen for hours. I even write some words! At the moment I'm racing to get the first draft of my new book (part of a four book sequential series) done by about the middle of next week. It's meant to be 65,000 words, but will probably be nearer 75,000 before I start editing and re-writing and cutting huge swathes of it. This means that the DSL cable gets unplugged so I'm not distracted by the interpipe. It's a very solitary existence. I think writing is one of the few occupations where you never get rid of that "I haven't done my homework" feeling.
But as ever, I have stuff to say!
* Thanks for all your comments about the Let's Get Lost excerpt. I always over-write so even though I had to cut about 30,000 words, the book was a lot longer than most teen novels. The 30,000 words didn't really add anything to the story, it was more a case of quantity rather than quality and by cutting out all the extraneous stuff, I think it reads better. I will post a few more excerpts though if you're interested.
* I'd like to officially welcome all my new MySpace buddies! Thank you for all your comments and messages. There's nothing more heart-warming when I'm struggling to write (yesterday I spent three hours on one sentence!) to get a message from one of you. Fr'instance Lauren's comment of yesterday inspired me to bash out another 1000 words, so thanks!
* Both my books and I contain language that some people find offensive. I'm guessing you guys are the same!
* The US editions of Diary Of A Crush are now available to pre-order.
* I'm doing two events at the Birmingham Young Reader's programme on May 23rd. I'm speaking for the motion: Text speak is destroying the English Language for a debate in the morning and then doing a presentation in the afternoon on erm, I think what inspires me. Note to self: Find out for sure. If you're going to be there, please come and say hello. I promise you that my state of nerves will be far worse than yours.
* You all have to go out and buy the new Camera Obscura single, Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken. If you love Belle And Sebastian, then the Cameras will become your new favourite band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night in London and I'm already giddy with excitement.
OK, I have to go now. My goal for today is 5000 words but I'll leave you with my own profound thought of today. Why is it that those four packs of yoghurt always have one flavour that's totally rank? Black Cherry? I'm not feeling it. Mango? Get it out of here.
Apart from that, I got nothing!
Love
Sarra x
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Let's Get Lost - excerpt
I'm behind schedule on my writing, which means I've had to cancel all my plans for the weekend. So instead of a post telling you all of my thrilling adventures in typing, I thought I'd let you read this extract that was cut from the final version of Let's Get Lost. It came in at 20,000 words over, so a lot had to go.
This was a scene with Isabel and her clueless guidance consellor. Hope you enjoy it, even if you haven't read the book yet!
Only two things got me through Friday: Smith's unfeigned delight when I told him that I'd engineered a whole weekend together and the holdall I had stuffed in my locker which contained everything I needed to maintain his delight.
It even got me through another session with Claire who kept prodding and prodding at me as if I was a sleeping dog she was trying to wake up.
Thankfully she'd abandoned her little scheme to have me spilling my guts and copious tears all over her kilim rug and decided to talk about what a mean, old bully I was.
"You seem to have quite a fierce reputation among your peers, why do you think that is," she asked, gimlet eyes fixed steadily on me. I made a mental note to find out if Lily was seeing her too. "Sometimes when people are in pain, they transfer it on to those around them, don't they, Isabel?"
I crossed my legs and tried to decide whether I should wear my vintage little black dress or my other vintage little black dress when we went up to London tomorrow. It was such a tough decision that I could almost tune out the sound of Claire's voice buzzing vaguely around the periphery of my senses.
"… and you wrote such a beautiful essay about The Great Gatsby. Mrs Phillips told me that you have a very advanced understanding of the themes of the novel for your age. You're not immature, Isabel, quite the contrary, so I'd really like to know your thoughts on your behaviour over the last year. What do you think are the underlying reasons for your problems with socialisation?"
I blinked at her. Maybe the silent thing was getting old. And maybe I could befuddle her with some dense psychobabble. Because one thing was for sure, she didn't want to know the truth.
"I guess…" I began uncertainly and she leaned forward with an obscenely eager expression.
"Yes, Isabel?"
"Well, it's like in The Great Gatsby when Nick idealises Daisy as this perfect woman and she isn't. And she didn't ask for it, but she takes advantage of his love all the same. Nobody ever knows what someone else is like. Not really. They just end up projecting all this crap onto the other person, you know?"
Claire was staring at me blankly and it was pretty obvious that she didn't know. She was the Grand Pooba of cluelessness.
"I see," she said, nodding frantically and I stared at the box of tissues and wondered if I could get her to cry. It would be my greatest triumph.
"I don't mean to be rude, but have you actually read The Great Gatsby?"
That stopped her in her tracks. She fingered her spectacles chain and licked her thin lips nervously. "Well, many years ago. Or was that The Fountainhead?"
"The Fountainhead is by Ayn Rand, F Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby," I told her kindly. "They're two completely different books. Gatsby's about the death of the American dream and The Fountainhead is about the theory of objectivism and the strength of the individual. They couldn't be more different," I finished scathingly and I'd missed this.
Before, Dad would pick out novels for me to read, then he'd take me out to Mrs Hudson's on Sydney Street for apple pie and we'd discuss each book in detail. But it had stopped, after Mrs Cohen got all antsy that I was developing too far ahead of the curriculum because God forbid that I should actually be bored in class because I'd read the set text three times before and debated it with a Professor of Literature. And Mrs Hudson's had the best apple pie.
"Goodness, Isabel, you can be quite strident," Claire breathed. "Are you this forceful with your friends? Maybe if you were a little gentler with your opinions, then people would be less intimidated by you."
I think it was that patronising little speech that made me swear a solemn vow that I'd have her crying like a little baby before the end of term.
"Really? Do I come across as intimidating? How weird. Am I intimidating you, Claire? 'Cause if I am, I'm very sorry."
She gave a nervous laugh. "No, of course not. It's lovely to have you participating in the session."
"Why?"
"Why what, Isabel?"
"Why is it lovely to have me participating in the session?" It was a fair question because it wasn't lovely for me. It ranked somewhere below rectal surgery.
It was a totally moot point, which one of us was more relieved when the final bell sounded.
"4 o'clock already?" Claire cried, scooping up her papers and almost falling over her Earth shoes in her haste to put as much distance between us as possible. "Have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you next Friday."
I stayed sitting down long enough for her to start getting this haunted look at the possibility that I might want to stay and chat, before I slowly uncoiled myself out of the chair. Then I sauntered towards the door, taking my sweet time about it and it wasn't until I closed the door behind me that I let myself break into a mad sprint so I could throw my books into my locker, grab my bag and get the hell out of Dodge before The Trio Of Doom caught up with me.
Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning
This was a scene with Isabel and her clueless guidance consellor. Hope you enjoy it, even if you haven't read the book yet!
Only two things got me through Friday: Smith's unfeigned delight when I told him that I'd engineered a whole weekend together and the holdall I had stuffed in my locker which contained everything I needed to maintain his delight.
It even got me through another session with Claire who kept prodding and prodding at me as if I was a sleeping dog she was trying to wake up.
Thankfully she'd abandoned her little scheme to have me spilling my guts and copious tears all over her kilim rug and decided to talk about what a mean, old bully I was.
"You seem to have quite a fierce reputation among your peers, why do you think that is," she asked, gimlet eyes fixed steadily on me. I made a mental note to find out if Lily was seeing her too. "Sometimes when people are in pain, they transfer it on to those around them, don't they, Isabel?"
I crossed my legs and tried to decide whether I should wear my vintage little black dress or my other vintage little black dress when we went up to London tomorrow. It was such a tough decision that I could almost tune out the sound of Claire's voice buzzing vaguely around the periphery of my senses.
"… and you wrote such a beautiful essay about The Great Gatsby. Mrs Phillips told me that you have a very advanced understanding of the themes of the novel for your age. You're not immature, Isabel, quite the contrary, so I'd really like to know your thoughts on your behaviour over the last year. What do you think are the underlying reasons for your problems with socialisation?"
I blinked at her. Maybe the silent thing was getting old. And maybe I could befuddle her with some dense psychobabble. Because one thing was for sure, she didn't want to know the truth.
"I guess…" I began uncertainly and she leaned forward with an obscenely eager expression.
"Yes, Isabel?"
"Well, it's like in The Great Gatsby when Nick idealises Daisy as this perfect woman and she isn't. And she didn't ask for it, but she takes advantage of his love all the same. Nobody ever knows what someone else is like. Not really. They just end up projecting all this crap onto the other person, you know?"
Claire was staring at me blankly and it was pretty obvious that she didn't know. She was the Grand Pooba of cluelessness.
"I see," she said, nodding frantically and I stared at the box of tissues and wondered if I could get her to cry. It would be my greatest triumph.
"I don't mean to be rude, but have you actually read The Great Gatsby?"
That stopped her in her tracks. She fingered her spectacles chain and licked her thin lips nervously. "Well, many years ago. Or was that The Fountainhead?"
"The Fountainhead is by Ayn Rand, F Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby," I told her kindly. "They're two completely different books. Gatsby's about the death of the American dream and The Fountainhead is about the theory of objectivism and the strength of the individual. They couldn't be more different," I finished scathingly and I'd missed this.
Before, Dad would pick out novels for me to read, then he'd take me out to Mrs Hudson's on Sydney Street for apple pie and we'd discuss each book in detail. But it had stopped, after Mrs Cohen got all antsy that I was developing too far ahead of the curriculum because God forbid that I should actually be bored in class because I'd read the set text three times before and debated it with a Professor of Literature. And Mrs Hudson's had the best apple pie.
"Goodness, Isabel, you can be quite strident," Claire breathed. "Are you this forceful with your friends? Maybe if you were a little gentler with your opinions, then people would be less intimidated by you."
I think it was that patronising little speech that made me swear a solemn vow that I'd have her crying like a little baby before the end of term.
"Really? Do I come across as intimidating? How weird. Am I intimidating you, Claire? 'Cause if I am, I'm very sorry."
She gave a nervous laugh. "No, of course not. It's lovely to have you participating in the session."
"Why?"
"Why what, Isabel?"
"Why is it lovely to have me participating in the session?" It was a fair question because it wasn't lovely for me. It ranked somewhere below rectal surgery.
It was a totally moot point, which one of us was more relieved when the final bell sounded.
"4 o'clock already?" Claire cried, scooping up her papers and almost falling over her Earth shoes in her haste to put as much distance between us as possible. "Have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you next Friday."
I stayed sitting down long enough for her to start getting this haunted look at the possibility that I might want to stay and chat, before I slowly uncoiled myself out of the chair. Then I sauntered towards the door, taking my sweet time about it and it wasn't until I closed the door behind me that I let myself break into a mad sprint so I could throw my books into my locker, grab my bag and get the hell out of Dodge before The Trio Of Doom caught up with me.
Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Yes, Lloyd, I'm so ready to be heartbroken...
It's gloriously sunny in London Town. All the windows are open, the first application of Nivea Holiday Sun Body Lotion has gone on to my translucent legs and maybe winter is finally over.
Alas, I spend most of my days chained to my temperamental Mac banging out between 1000 to 3500 words a day, depending on how motivated I can be. I'm now over the halfway hump on the first book of my new series and learning lots og fun facts about the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union. I can say no more!
What I will say is that I recently did an interview with the Young Scotsman, which you can find here and that you all have to go and download this song because it's adorable.
Oh yes, and the new issue of ELLE UK? The one with Paris Hilton on the cover? I actually went to LA to meet Ms Hilton and write that piece, so you might want to check it out.
Now I'm turning off the computer and going to spend the rest of the weekend hanging with my friends who are starting to think that I've fallen off the edge of the world. So, see you next week.
And remember to wear sun block!
Love
Sarra x
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Alas, I spend most of my days chained to my temperamental Mac banging out between 1000 to 3500 words a day, depending on how motivated I can be. I'm now over the halfway hump on the first book of my new series and learning lots og fun facts about the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union. I can say no more!
What I will say is that I recently did an interview with the Young Scotsman, which you can find here and that you all have to go and download this song because it's adorable.
Oh yes, and the new issue of ELLE UK? The one with Paris Hilton on the cover? I actually went to LA to meet Ms Hilton and write that piece, so you might want to check it out.
Now I'm turning off the computer and going to spend the rest of the weekend hanging with my friends who are starting to think that I've fallen off the edge of the world. So, see you next week.
And remember to wear sun block!
Love
Sarra x
(Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Every day I write the book...
Happy Easter/Happy Passover Ladies
Though actually I never understood the concept behind Jesus is risen so let's all go and eat eggs made of chocolate. It could be because I'm Jewish or it could be that I don't eat anything made of chocolate, but I just don't understand the connection.
So, I'm slightly mopey on this Sunday afternoon because I have a Pilates-related injury and can't see a blessed thing. I wear these strange contact lenses at night so I can see during the day but lately they've been giving me all kinds of grief. Apparently, I have a problem with my tears. Not the quantity, you understand, as I can weep during a particularly traumatic episode of The OC, but the quality of my tears is shoddy and sub-standard. Hence, Sahara-dry eyes and problems with my special lenses.
I have just completed a gargantuan project to turn the 25,000 words already written of the first book in my new series from the first person to the third person. It might comfort aspiring writers to know that I still suck when it comes to the basic rules of grammar. Tenses confuse me. Like a lot. And I have a post-it note stuck to my computer to remind me of the difference between 'who's' and 'whose'. Today I even got an email from a friend explaining the different between 'she' and 'her'. But I am really good with spelling so I guess it all balances out.
Thanks for all your comments, especially my new friends from My Space. Thanks also for your book recs. I saw Sugar Rush and it was better than the book, which wasn't saying that much and I don't do fantasy, though I met David Almond once and he was a lovely bloke who bought me a drink. At the moment, I have a teetering two piles of books that I'm planning to read. A lot of them are teen titles that I bought as far back as September when I was last in New York, but I never read teen fiction while I'm writing as I'm too aware that I get influenced very easily.
What else? No, no sequels to anything. I do say this every time, but it doesn't seem to be registering. I write a book, tell the story and that's it. Done. Dusted. I'm incredibly flattered that you enjoy the books so much that you want more, but I have so many ideas in my head and I'm rather create new characters and worlds, than revisit old ones. And for advice on writing, it's worth going to sarramanning.blogspot.com and scrolling back through the archive.
One final thing. beyourowngirl, this is your last call! You were the joint winner of the movie cast contest but if you don't leave your email addy in the next week, then you've had it! PennyLane someone from my publisher will be contacting you to get your snailmail addy so they can send on the Let's Get Lost vest.
I hope I don't sound too cranky in this post. Maybe the not eating chocolate is getting to me…
Love
Sarra x
Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Though actually I never understood the concept behind Jesus is risen so let's all go and eat eggs made of chocolate. It could be because I'm Jewish or it could be that I don't eat anything made of chocolate, but I just don't understand the connection.
So, I'm slightly mopey on this Sunday afternoon because I have a Pilates-related injury and can't see a blessed thing. I wear these strange contact lenses at night so I can see during the day but lately they've been giving me all kinds of grief. Apparently, I have a problem with my tears. Not the quantity, you understand, as I can weep during a particularly traumatic episode of The OC, but the quality of my tears is shoddy and sub-standard. Hence, Sahara-dry eyes and problems with my special lenses.
I have just completed a gargantuan project to turn the 25,000 words already written of the first book in my new series from the first person to the third person. It might comfort aspiring writers to know that I still suck when it comes to the basic rules of grammar. Tenses confuse me. Like a lot. And I have a post-it note stuck to my computer to remind me of the difference between 'who's' and 'whose'. Today I even got an email from a friend explaining the different between 'she' and 'her'. But I am really good with spelling so I guess it all balances out.
Thanks for all your comments, especially my new friends from My Space. Thanks also for your book recs. I saw Sugar Rush and it was better than the book, which wasn't saying that much and I don't do fantasy, though I met David Almond once and he was a lovely bloke who bought me a drink. At the moment, I have a teetering two piles of books that I'm planning to read. A lot of them are teen titles that I bought as far back as September when I was last in New York, but I never read teen fiction while I'm writing as I'm too aware that I get influenced very easily.
What else? No, no sequels to anything. I do say this every time, but it doesn't seem to be registering. I write a book, tell the story and that's it. Done. Dusted. I'm incredibly flattered that you enjoy the books so much that you want more, but I have so many ideas in my head and I'm rather create new characters and worlds, than revisit old ones. And for advice on writing, it's worth going to sarramanning.blogspot.com and scrolling back through the archive.
One final thing. beyourowngirl, this is your last call! You were the joint winner of the movie cast contest but if you don't leave your email addy in the next week, then you've had it! PennyLane someone from my publisher will be contacting you to get your snailmail addy so they can send on the Let's Get Lost vest.
I hope I don't sound too cranky in this post. Maybe the not eating chocolate is getting to me…
Love
Sarra x
Cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
There's too much love...
Just eating a late lunch and drinking a glass of Welch's grape juice, which has this really gross undertaste of scented erasers. Ick!
Not much to report really. I'm hard at work on the first book in my new four-volume series, which will be published next year and the year after! I'm averaging about 3000 words a day at the moment, which is kinda lame for me but I do faff about a lot on MySpace and sending stupid emails to 6 Music. I'm distracto girl!
I would like to thank everyone who's left comments on blogspot and My Space. It's probably worth repeating to any newcomers that there are NO plans to write sequels to Diary Of A Crush, Guitar Girl or any of my other books. What you've got is what you're going to get, I'm afraid. I'm also quite amused by the reviews for Guitar Girl on amazon.com that are obsessing about how the book was based on the Sex Pistols, or No Doubt or Babes In Toyland. To which I have to officially say, not even! I was a music journalist for three years and Molly's story is the classic story of any wide-eyed kid that gets thrown into the music industry too far and too fast. Yes, it's easy to read the book and then find a real-life person in a band and draw paralells (hmmm, that's not spelt right) because evil managers and screwed up relationships with other band members and the like happens all the time. Sorry for the rant, but I'm always upfront about my influences and inspirations, and those reviews have really been bugging me.
So because all I do all day is write and not actually have a life, I thought I'd post about a few things I'm into at the moment.
I'm reading...
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
He's such a funny writer and this is the perfect book to read before I snuggle down for the night.
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James somebody or other
I had to read this for my book group and it's awful. Easily on my top three list of worst books I've ever had to read. It has all these reviews on the back about how funny it is. But they lie. Boy, how they do lie!
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
When I was in the States, I did my usual trip to Borders to stock up on interesting looking books - usually teen stuff and books about hipsters who dress really well while they try to find themselves. I picked this up and can't wait to read it.
The Nightwatch by Sarah Waters
I love her books, even though I couldn't finish Affinity because I got too scared.
I'm listening to...
Belle And Sebastian
Mainly because I'm always listening to Belle And Sebastian and their new single is out this week.
My new work-out playlist
Which is all the really fast bits from the last Go!Team and Goldfrapp albums.
The Essex Green - The Cannibal Sea
I heart this band. Gorgeous vocals and they're a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll, a little bit magical.
The Priscillas
One of my best friends is in this band (in fact, she's cooking me dinner tonight before she tries to kick my arse in Scrabble.) They have really big hair and they rock. No, my mistake, THEY ROCK!!!!!!!!
I'm watching...
The OC
I'm mid-way through a big project to re-watch every single episode of The O.C because OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seth + Summer 4EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Supernatural
But I might have to give it up because I really do get too frightened . I should probably point out that I'm the most fraidy person in the world. Even a car back-firing in the street sends me into conniptions.
America's Next Top Model
This is my total TV crack. I love this show so much that if it wasn't completely illegal I'd be downloading the newly airing US series off the interpipe. Not that I am because it would be wrong. But, hey, if I was - what is Jade's problem? Qu'elle une bitch!
Veronica Mars
She's my second favourite, tiny blonde ass-kicker after Buffy.
And now I need to get back to my contractually obligated 3000 words. I'm still waiting for the other competition winner (that movie cast promo I ran) to leave me her email. I can't remember your name, but hey, step to it!
This grape juice really is disgusting...
Live on
Sarra
(cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Not much to report really. I'm hard at work on the first book in my new four-volume series, which will be published next year and the year after! I'm averaging about 3000 words a day at the moment, which is kinda lame for me but I do faff about a lot on MySpace and sending stupid emails to 6 Music. I'm distracto girl!
I would like to thank everyone who's left comments on blogspot and My Space. It's probably worth repeating to any newcomers that there are NO plans to write sequels to Diary Of A Crush, Guitar Girl or any of my other books. What you've got is what you're going to get, I'm afraid. I'm also quite amused by the reviews for Guitar Girl on amazon.com that are obsessing about how the book was based on the Sex Pistols, or No Doubt or Babes In Toyland. To which I have to officially say, not even! I was a music journalist for three years and Molly's story is the classic story of any wide-eyed kid that gets thrown into the music industry too far and too fast. Yes, it's easy to read the book and then find a real-life person in a band and draw paralells (hmmm, that's not spelt right) because evil managers and screwed up relationships with other band members and the like happens all the time. Sorry for the rant, but I'm always upfront about my influences and inspirations, and those reviews have really been bugging me.
So because all I do all day is write and not actually have a life, I thought I'd post about a few things I'm into at the moment.
I'm reading...
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
He's such a funny writer and this is the perfect book to read before I snuggle down for the night.
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James somebody or other
I had to read this for my book group and it's awful. Easily on my top three list of worst books I've ever had to read. It has all these reviews on the back about how funny it is. But they lie. Boy, how they do lie!
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
When I was in the States, I did my usual trip to Borders to stock up on interesting looking books - usually teen stuff and books about hipsters who dress really well while they try to find themselves. I picked this up and can't wait to read it.
The Nightwatch by Sarah Waters
I love her books, even though I couldn't finish Affinity because I got too scared.
I'm listening to...
Belle And Sebastian
Mainly because I'm always listening to Belle And Sebastian and their new single is out this week.
My new work-out playlist
Which is all the really fast bits from the last Go!Team and Goldfrapp albums.
The Essex Green - The Cannibal Sea
I heart this band. Gorgeous vocals and they're a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll, a little bit magical.
The Priscillas
One of my best friends is in this band (in fact, she's cooking me dinner tonight before she tries to kick my arse in Scrabble.) They have really big hair and they rock. No, my mistake, THEY ROCK!!!!!!!!
I'm watching...
The OC
I'm mid-way through a big project to re-watch every single episode of The O.C because OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seth + Summer 4EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Supernatural
But I might have to give it up because I really do get too frightened . I should probably point out that I'm the most fraidy person in the world. Even a car back-firing in the street sends me into conniptions.
America's Next Top Model
This is my total TV crack. I love this show so much that if it wasn't completely illegal I'd be downloading the newly airing US series off the interpipe. Not that I am because it would be wrong. But, hey, if I was - what is Jade's problem? Qu'elle une bitch!
Veronica Mars
She's my second favourite, tiny blonde ass-kicker after Buffy.
And now I need to get back to my contractually obligated 3000 words. I'm still waiting for the other competition winner (that movie cast promo I ran) to leave me her email. I can't remember your name, but hey, step to it!
This grape juice really is disgusting...
Live on
Sarra
(cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Calm down, dears
Ladies, please
I'm not going anywhere! I will be cross-posting my blog entries both to blogspot (ie, right here) and MySpace.
Be cool
Sarra x
I'm not going anywhere! I will be cross-posting my blog entries both to blogspot (ie, right here) and MySpace.
Be cool
Sarra x
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Because Friendster is so three years ago...
http://myspace.com/sarramanning
Yes, my friends I've given into the evil lure of My Space! I had a huge batch of emails forwarded to me by my publishers and I realise that some of you are replying to posts I've made here, and even entering some of the competitions I've run, by email to the books with bite addy. That doesn't actually work so well. If you've received my long 'bounce-back' email you'll know that I can't reply to emails for a variety of reasons.
But I am aware that blogspot can be a bit problematic. Because I was getting so much comment spam, I had to set up this blog so that only people with blogspot membership could reply. Now I'm passionate about blogging but I realise that some of you aren't but it also means that I can't leave comments on your blogs because you've already deleted them.
So, my cunning solution to all of this is to have a My Space page. I'm guessing that a lot of you are on there too and it's much easier to leave comments and Friend people. All the entries I make here will now be cross-posted to My Space and I would love, love, love it if you could come and Friend me and I will Friend you back. The MySpace blog will only be open to people who are on my Friends Space but I think it's a much cooler, user-friendly place than maybe blogspot is.
So, come on. I have to get more Friends that my RL friends, some of whom are in bands!
In other business, I'm sorry but there are no plans for me to travel around the country doing book signings. I'm way low down on the famous author's ladder and it would cost more to stick me on a train, then the booksellers would get back from people buying books for me to sign. It's a sad but true state of affairs. I will be doing a whole day at the Birmingham Young Readers Week on Tuesday 23rd, so if you're from Brum and your school wants to know if you're interested in any events going on, sign up! I'm taking part in a debate about text speak (so very against it!) in the morning and then in the afternoon I'm giving a talk about what inspires me. Y'know, the usual, The OC blah blah blah, My So-Called Life blah blah blah. You can pretty much guess what I'll say!
Also, illnevertell, I might be able to do an interview via email. Possibly. Have you got an URL for the e-zine?
And now I need to get back to that difficult chapter four.
Laters!
Love
Sarra
Yes, my friends I've given into the evil lure of My Space! I had a huge batch of emails forwarded to me by my publishers and I realise that some of you are replying to posts I've made here, and even entering some of the competitions I've run, by email to the books with bite addy. That doesn't actually work so well. If you've received my long 'bounce-back' email you'll know that I can't reply to emails for a variety of reasons.
But I am aware that blogspot can be a bit problematic. Because I was getting so much comment spam, I had to set up this blog so that only people with blogspot membership could reply. Now I'm passionate about blogging but I realise that some of you aren't but it also means that I can't leave comments on your blogs because you've already deleted them.
So, my cunning solution to all of this is to have a My Space page. I'm guessing that a lot of you are on there too and it's much easier to leave comments and Friend people. All the entries I make here will now be cross-posted to My Space and I would love, love, love it if you could come and Friend me and I will Friend you back. The MySpace blog will only be open to people who are on my Friends Space but I think it's a much cooler, user-friendly place than maybe blogspot is.
So, come on. I have to get more Friends that my RL friends, some of whom are in bands!
In other business, I'm sorry but there are no plans for me to travel around the country doing book signings. I'm way low down on the famous author's ladder and it would cost more to stick me on a train, then the booksellers would get back from people buying books for me to sign. It's a sad but true state of affairs. I will be doing a whole day at the Birmingham Young Readers Week on Tuesday 23rd, so if you're from Brum and your school wants to know if you're interested in any events going on, sign up! I'm taking part in a debate about text speak (so very against it!) in the morning and then in the afternoon I'm giving a talk about what inspires me. Y'know, the usual, The OC blah blah blah, My So-Called Life blah blah blah. You can pretty much guess what I'll say!
Also, illnevertell, I might be able to do an interview via email. Possibly. Have you got an URL for the e-zine?
And now I need to get back to that difficult chapter four.
Laters!
Love
Sarra
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I'm in love with illusion, so saw me in half...
Salut, mes petites cheres
Finally I'm home from my travels and hopefully staying put in London for a while so I can get on with the book writing. I really hope to be able to tell you officially and properly about my new project soon. I'm very excited about it.
Paris was wonderful. It was a real thrill to go to FNAC (the French version of Borders) and see Diary Of A Crush (or Journal d'un Coup de Foudre as it's known over there) on the shelves, as well as meeting my French publishers and some readers at the Salon du Livre event. Not so fun was throwing up in a Parisian street - I suffer from really bad food allergies to some quite obscure ingredients and after being taken out for l'experience gastronomique, I was knocked for six. It was beyond embarassing.
At the moment I have a friend from LA staying and it's been wonderful to see London as a tourist. We went on the Highgate Cemetary Tour (which is very near where I live and if any of you ever come to London, I implore you to wander around the overgrown grounds and marvel at the magnificient mausoleums.) We also shopped because a week without a visit to Dorothy Perkins (it's the new Topshop) is a week wasted. Then tomorrow we're off for a bit of culture and will visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. But mostly today I slumped in Carphone Warehouse, signing half my life away so I could get my hot hands on the new Nokia Chic phone because it's gold and it has pretty flowers on it and I'm such a girl.
Anyway, from next week, there should be the resumption of normal service round these parts. But while I've been away, you lot have certainly been busy! What a veritable slew of comments. So, please try and bear with me as I reply to them here and I will be trying to leave a few comments in your blogs over the next few days too.
So, firstly thanks to everyone who've left comments about Let's Get Lost especially Ellie (I'm afraid I haven't got time to give you any specific writing tips but if you have a poke through my blog archives, I did write a long post on this very topic.) Thanks also to Beth, the eloquent miss_teen_angst and Michelle and yes, the film Virgin Suicides, which came out quite a few years ago now, is based on the book of the same name and actually you've inspired me to re-watch it this weekend. And extra special thanks to Abby - I'm always on the lookout for new bands to fall in love with so I will definitely check out both your blog and your recs. And re: Dylan? They do? Then my work here is done!
And now the results of the film cast competition! Thank you to everyone who entered. Your responses made me smile and in a couple of instances, actually squeak in horror! For what it's worth, I'm impressed at your choices as I couldn't think of anyone who'd I cast as everytime the subject comes up I have such a clear idea of what my characters look like, I get quite side-tracked. The only person that was based on a character from TV was Isabel's Dad who was inspired by the dour and dark Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from the TV show, Angel, but from the later seasons when he was all conflicted and stubbly. Just so you know! Anyway, the winners, after much deliberation are...
PennyLane
I really was taken with the notion of Emily Browning (who I loved in the Lemony Snickert movie) as Molly and I was re-watching an episode of The OC this lunch-time and swooning over the actor who plays Trey!
Beyourowngirl
Again, I adore Evan Rachel Wood for not fitting the mould of most young Hollywood actresses, James Franco is possibly too good-looking to play Smith but he is a fox and you got extra points for Michelle Trachtenberg as Ice Princess is one of my guilty pleasures!
If you haven't left me your email addy, then leave me a comment so I can get your address and limited edition LGL vests will be winging their way to you.
I am going to run another competition with more vest giveaways in the next week or so, so don't be disheartened. And thanks again, to everyone who entered.
Now I think dinner is almost ready and I want to watch Veronica Mars so I bid you au revoir!
Love
Sarra x
Finally I'm home from my travels and hopefully staying put in London for a while so I can get on with the book writing. I really hope to be able to tell you officially and properly about my new project soon. I'm very excited about it.
Paris was wonderful. It was a real thrill to go to FNAC (the French version of Borders) and see Diary Of A Crush (or Journal d'un Coup de Foudre as it's known over there) on the shelves, as well as meeting my French publishers and some readers at the Salon du Livre event. Not so fun was throwing up in a Parisian street - I suffer from really bad food allergies to some quite obscure ingredients and after being taken out for l'experience gastronomique, I was knocked for six. It was beyond embarassing.
At the moment I have a friend from LA staying and it's been wonderful to see London as a tourist. We went on the Highgate Cemetary Tour (which is very near where I live and if any of you ever come to London, I implore you to wander around the overgrown grounds and marvel at the magnificient mausoleums.) We also shopped because a week without a visit to Dorothy Perkins (it's the new Topshop) is a week wasted. Then tomorrow we're off for a bit of culture and will visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. But mostly today I slumped in Carphone Warehouse, signing half my life away so I could get my hot hands on the new Nokia Chic phone because it's gold and it has pretty flowers on it and I'm such a girl.
Anyway, from next week, there should be the resumption of normal service round these parts. But while I've been away, you lot have certainly been busy! What a veritable slew of comments. So, please try and bear with me as I reply to them here and I will be trying to leave a few comments in your blogs over the next few days too.
So, firstly thanks to everyone who've left comments about Let's Get Lost especially Ellie (I'm afraid I haven't got time to give you any specific writing tips but if you have a poke through my blog archives, I did write a long post on this very topic.) Thanks also to Beth, the eloquent miss_teen_angst and Michelle and yes, the film Virgin Suicides, which came out quite a few years ago now, is based on the book of the same name and actually you've inspired me to re-watch it this weekend. And extra special thanks to Abby - I'm always on the lookout for new bands to fall in love with so I will definitely check out both your blog and your recs. And re: Dylan? They do? Then my work here is done!
And now the results of the film cast competition! Thank you to everyone who entered. Your responses made me smile and in a couple of instances, actually squeak in horror! For what it's worth, I'm impressed at your choices as I couldn't think of anyone who'd I cast as everytime the subject comes up I have such a clear idea of what my characters look like, I get quite side-tracked. The only person that was based on a character from TV was Isabel's Dad who was inspired by the dour and dark Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from the TV show, Angel, but from the later seasons when he was all conflicted and stubbly. Just so you know! Anyway, the winners, after much deliberation are...
PennyLane
I really was taken with the notion of Emily Browning (who I loved in the Lemony Snickert movie) as Molly and I was re-watching an episode of The OC this lunch-time and swooning over the actor who plays Trey!
Beyourowngirl
Again, I adore Evan Rachel Wood for not fitting the mould of most young Hollywood actresses, James Franco is possibly too good-looking to play Smith but he is a fox and you got extra points for Michelle Trachtenberg as Ice Princess is one of my guilty pleasures!
If you haven't left me your email addy, then leave me a comment so I can get your address and limited edition LGL vests will be winging their way to you.
I am going to run another competition with more vest giveaways in the next week or so, so don't be disheartened. And thanks again, to everyone who entered.
Now I think dinner is almost ready and I want to watch Veronica Mars so I bid you au revoir!
Love
Sarra x
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Writer sans borders...
Just poking my head round the door before I leave to catch the Eurostar to say hi. LA was a blast and I'll post about that soon but I just wanted to remind les jeunes filles francais that I'll be doing a signing on Saturday morning at the Salon de Livre in Paris, please come and say, "Bonjour!"
And keep those competition entries coming. So far your answers have thrilled and horrified me in equal measure!
Au revoir
Sarra x
And keep those competition entries coming. So far your answers have thrilled and horrified me in equal measure!
Au revoir
Sarra x
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Well, I'm softer than my face would suggest...
Hello pretty things
Writing this at twice the speed of light because I need to jump in the shower and wash off the gym sweat. I have a friend coming over this evening and there will be fish and chips with so much vinegar on them that it will hurt to eat them. There'll be some DVDs, possibly It Happened One Night and lots of wine, as I'm well over the legal drinking age! Ah, sleepovers never stop being fun.
So, before I say anything else, I just wanted to say a big thank you to HeartsOnFire and i'llnevertell for the beautiful comments about Let's Get Lost that you left on my last entry. I was deeply touched and also blushed a little. As I keep saying, it's a hugely personal book for me so I really appreciate it when it strikes such a resonant note with other people.
Now, I've been promising you a competition and I always try to keep my promises. My publishers have given me three very limited edition Let's Get Lost vests to give away. They're black, rather on the small side, with the cover image on them. To win one leave a comment telling me who you'd cast if you were making a movie from one of my books. Not just the boy and girl but any of the supporting characters too. Think about it because the prizes will go for the most original or interesting answers. And nobody is allowed to say that Adam Brody should play Smith! And don't forget to leave an email addy so I know where to contact you.
I'm afraid that I might not be able to update next Saturday as I'll be in LA interviewing someone for ELLE UK. But I might see if I can get access to a computer so one of my blog entries can be from somewhere glamorous! Then I'm in Paris after that. It all sounds impossibly cool I know, but not so much really. Especially as I spend most of my time in old jeans and a holey jumpers tapping away on my computer instead of going out and having adventures.
I'm now hard at work on my first book in a four book series. It's starting to come together, though a lot of what I'm writing now will probably get scraped as it's more important at this stage to just get the right voice going. But, hey, look how much I've written!
Love you, mean it!
S x
Writing this at twice the speed of light because I need to jump in the shower and wash off the gym sweat. I have a friend coming over this evening and there will be fish and chips with so much vinegar on them that it will hurt to eat them. There'll be some DVDs, possibly It Happened One Night and lots of wine, as I'm well over the legal drinking age! Ah, sleepovers never stop being fun.
So, before I say anything else, I just wanted to say a big thank you to HeartsOnFire and i'llnevertell for the beautiful comments about Let's Get Lost that you left on my last entry. I was deeply touched and also blushed a little. As I keep saying, it's a hugely personal book for me so I really appreciate it when it strikes such a resonant note with other people.
Now, I've been promising you a competition and I always try to keep my promises. My publishers have given me three very limited edition Let's Get Lost vests to give away. They're black, rather on the small side, with the cover image on them. To win one leave a comment telling me who you'd cast if you were making a movie from one of my books. Not just the boy and girl but any of the supporting characters too. Think about it because the prizes will go for the most original or interesting answers. And nobody is allowed to say that Adam Brody should play Smith! And don't forget to leave an email addy so I know where to contact you.
I'm afraid that I might not be able to update next Saturday as I'll be in LA interviewing someone for ELLE UK. But I might see if I can get access to a computer so one of my blog entries can be from somewhere glamorous! Then I'm in Paris after that. It all sounds impossibly cool I know, but not so much really. Especially as I spend most of my time in old jeans and a holey jumpers tapping away on my computer instead of going out and having adventures.
I'm now hard at work on my first book in a four book series. It's starting to come together, though a lot of what I'm writing now will probably get scraped as it's more important at this stage to just get the right voice going. But, hey, look how much I've written!
| |
9,198 / 65,000 (14.2%) |
Love you, mean it!
S x
Saturday, February 25, 2006
He likes to read books written for girls...
Salut, ma petits anges...
I'm practising for my trip to Paris. My first ever press trip where I'll be doing a bunch of interviews (with a translator because I think doing an interview is a bit more hardcore than ordering une verre du vin blanc, s'il vous plait) and appearing at Salon de Livre on Saturday March 18th to do a signing. If any of you happen to be in Paris then, please come along!
In other news, I've now started writing my next book. In fact, I've written 5003 words exactly. It won't be out until next year and it's the first novel in a four book series. I think it's safe to tell you that, though unfortunately I can't go into more detail as yet. What I can tell you is that you'll get three books from me next year and the last book in the series at the beginning of 2008. If I stick to my deadlines. But as I'm pretty goal orientated I'm hoping that won't be a problem.
And of course, Diary Of A Crush and Let's Get Lost will be out in the States in June and um, October respectively.
But if you're missing my 'bitching' prose style (yes, those were sarcastic quote marks), I do write a monthly column for British ELLE, as well as various features for them. And there's a review and a short interview with me at the end of it, here: http://www.pink-world.co.uk/zine_readinggroup.html Please follow the exact link (you'll have to cut and paste it), otherwise you'll end up on a porn site!
So, onto your questions:
girl_with_the_most_cake: The LGL preview is a PDF file. I'm on a Mac so it just opens immediately but you might need to open the PDF application and then manually open the LGL chapter in that. I hope that makes sense. As far as I know there are no plans, as yet, to preview DOAC. That would be up to my US publishers.
Paint_box_pastel: Hopefully I've already answered most of your questions. You can find out more about the mysterious Emily Strange at www.emilystrange.com. Google is our friend!
So, that's it from me this week. I love that I'm sticking to my weekly updates
Live on
Sarra x
I'm practising for my trip to Paris. My first ever press trip where I'll be doing a bunch of interviews (with a translator because I think doing an interview is a bit more hardcore than ordering une verre du vin blanc, s'il vous plait) and appearing at Salon de Livre on Saturday March 18th to do a signing. If any of you happen to be in Paris then, please come along!
In other news, I've now started writing my next book. In fact, I've written 5003 words exactly. It won't be out until next year and it's the first novel in a four book series. I think it's safe to tell you that, though unfortunately I can't go into more detail as yet. What I can tell you is that you'll get three books from me next year and the last book in the series at the beginning of 2008. If I stick to my deadlines. But as I'm pretty goal orientated I'm hoping that won't be a problem.
And of course, Diary Of A Crush and Let's Get Lost will be out in the States in June and um, October respectively.
But if you're missing my 'bitching' prose style (yes, those were sarcastic quote marks), I do write a monthly column for British ELLE, as well as various features for them. And there's a review and a short interview with me at the end of it, here: http://www.pink-world.co.uk/zine_readinggroup.html Please follow the exact link (you'll have to cut and paste it), otherwise you'll end up on a porn site!
So, onto your questions:
girl_with_the_most_cake: The LGL preview is a PDF file. I'm on a Mac so it just opens immediately but you might need to open the PDF application and then manually open the LGL chapter in that. I hope that makes sense. As far as I know there are no plans, as yet, to preview DOAC. That would be up to my US publishers.
Paint_box_pastel: Hopefully I've already answered most of your questions. You can find out more about the mysterious Emily Strange at www.emilystrange.com. Google is our friend!
So, that's it from me this week. I love that I'm sticking to my weekly updates
Live on
Sarra x
Saturday, February 18, 2006
You Are What You Love...
Hello my little zabagliones...
The state of the Manning at this time on a Saturday is hungover and aching. We had a little Ellegirl reunion last night, which incidentally was probably one of the happiest periods of my life when I was shut in a room for six months, with some of my favourite people in the world, working on the first issue. There was much wine and reminiscing last night and I remember managing to set fire to the leather wallet that the check came in but after that it's all a blur. Then this morning I started on the running machine and weight reps at the gym and am in a thousand agonies. I'm fit for nothing, I tell you. Nothing!
So, I want to thank dreamer, Natasha, Stacey, Ellie, mutilated_bliss (I hope that's not your real name!) and Le-anne for being so effusive in your praise of Let's Get Lost. I'm still getting a real kick out of seeing it on the shelves in the various bookshops I've been in to and then re-arranging it into a more prominent position. I think all authors do that and if they say they don't, then they have to be lying!
Stacey - I know there are glitches on the microsite but thank you for pointing that one out because it had escaped me. They promise that they're working to fix it.
Le-anne - I think Nina meant to post your wonderful review at my microsite, although the automated star-letter thingy doesn't seem to be working.
Princess-rosie - Gosh I can't even remember what I was listeneing to when I wrote LGL. But I was definitely listening to Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People, which is why Anthems For The Seventeen Year Old Girl because the theme tune for the book. I was listening to a lot of emo stuff though; Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse etc. Seth Cohen and I share the same record collection.
girl-with-the-the-most-cake - I was planning to give away a couple of signed copies of the book but now I'm hoping to get a couple of promo items from my publishers instead, which you won't be able to buy in the shop. Watch this space! And I got spoiled for this series of ANTM so I know who wins. Glad it wasn't that awful pageant girl who refused to cut her hair or Lisa who bugs me in a really special way. You're getting the new series this week, which I'm so jealous about!
lady_julieanne - I posted the CDs on Thursday night so they should be turning up imminently. And I'll let graceofmyheart go but I know for a fact that anyone who has the email cutiesnowgirl has to have got it from DOAC because it was an obscure in-joke between me and my friend, Sarah. Kinda funny though!
Nothing much else to report because my brain is really not working like it should. But I've finished full-time work for the time being so I can get up at nine every morning and on Monday I start my next book. I hope I can tell you a bit more next time I post.
Be good
Sarra x
The state of the Manning at this time on a Saturday is hungover and aching. We had a little Ellegirl reunion last night, which incidentally was probably one of the happiest periods of my life when I was shut in a room for six months, with some of my favourite people in the world, working on the first issue. There was much wine and reminiscing last night and I remember managing to set fire to the leather wallet that the check came in but after that it's all a blur. Then this morning I started on the running machine and weight reps at the gym and am in a thousand agonies. I'm fit for nothing, I tell you. Nothing!
So, I want to thank dreamer, Natasha, Stacey, Ellie, mutilated_bliss (I hope that's not your real name!) and Le-anne for being so effusive in your praise of Let's Get Lost. I'm still getting a real kick out of seeing it on the shelves in the various bookshops I've been in to and then re-arranging it into a more prominent position. I think all authors do that and if they say they don't, then they have to be lying!
Stacey - I know there are glitches on the microsite but thank you for pointing that one out because it had escaped me. They promise that they're working to fix it.
Le-anne - I think Nina meant to post your wonderful review at my microsite, although the automated star-letter thingy doesn't seem to be working.
Princess-rosie - Gosh I can't even remember what I was listeneing to when I wrote LGL. But I was definitely listening to Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People, which is why Anthems For The Seventeen Year Old Girl because the theme tune for the book. I was listening to a lot of emo stuff though; Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse etc. Seth Cohen and I share the same record collection.
girl-with-the-the-most-cake - I was planning to give away a couple of signed copies of the book but now I'm hoping to get a couple of promo items from my publishers instead, which you won't be able to buy in the shop. Watch this space! And I got spoiled for this series of ANTM so I know who wins. Glad it wasn't that awful pageant girl who refused to cut her hair or Lisa who bugs me in a really special way. You're getting the new series this week, which I'm so jealous about!
lady_julieanne - I posted the CDs on Thursday night so they should be turning up imminently. And I'll let graceofmyheart go but I know for a fact that anyone who has the email cutiesnowgirl has to have got it from DOAC because it was an obscure in-joke between me and my friend, Sarah. Kinda funny though!
Nothing much else to report because my brain is really not working like it should. But I've finished full-time work for the time being so I can get up at nine every morning and on Monday I start my next book. I hope I can tell you a bit more next time I post.
Be good
Sarra x
Sunday, February 12, 2006
If I could have a second skin I'd probably dress up in you...
Greetings
Especially if you're here for the first time and found this blog address in the back of Let's Get Lost. I want to thank you for all the comments you've left about the book. If you want to rave about it on amazon.co.uk, that would be cool with me too!
London is grey and rain-soaked today. But I'm back from the gym, all freshly showered, freshly pyjama-ed, listening to the new Belle And Sebastian album and with four episodes of The OC to watch after I've made some toast, so life is good.
A few things I need to say. My microsite: http://www.hodderkidsauthors.com/manning/ has been re-designed and updated. There's an interview with Molly from Guitar Girl, an article about crushing from Edie of Diary Of A Crush fame and an excerpt from Let's Get Lost up there too.
What else? I got an email from Nissa telling me about an IM chat she had with a boy from Egypt who has the same email address as Dylan in the DOAC books and that he's been bombarded with emails from my readers, some of whom have been to visit him. I'm quite concerned about this. Dylan is a fictional character. That means he's not real and not real boys do not have email addresses. Certainly when the books were first written, that email address was not operational. The books have now sold thousands of copies here in the UK and in France and Sweden and are just about to come out in the States. The email address can't be changed. But I hope that all of you would exercise caution on the internet and wouldn't email or chat with people you don't know. There are some really freaky types out there. This boy seems harmless enough but the thought that anyone would be irresponsible enough to meet up with someone anywhere just because they share an email address with a character in a book is seriously not cool. Please, please, please be careful.
OK, lecture over now. Josie and Lady Julieanne, sorry, I still haven't got those CDs in the post because I'm lame. I will make it happen this week.
Now Seth Cohen is calling to me and I'm powerless to resist...
Love Sarra x
Especially if you're here for the first time and found this blog address in the back of Let's Get Lost. I want to thank you for all the comments you've left about the book. If you want to rave about it on amazon.co.uk, that would be cool with me too!
London is grey and rain-soaked today. But I'm back from the gym, all freshly showered, freshly pyjama-ed, listening to the new Belle And Sebastian album and with four episodes of The OC to watch after I've made some toast, so life is good.
A few things I need to say. My microsite: http://www.hodderkidsauthors.com/manning/ has been re-designed and updated. There's an interview with Molly from Guitar Girl, an article about crushing from Edie of Diary Of A Crush fame and an excerpt from Let's Get Lost up there too.
What else? I got an email from Nissa telling me about an IM chat she had with a boy from Egypt who has the same email address as Dylan in the DOAC books and that he's been bombarded with emails from my readers, some of whom have been to visit him. I'm quite concerned about this. Dylan is a fictional character. That means he's not real and not real boys do not have email addresses. Certainly when the books were first written, that email address was not operational. The books have now sold thousands of copies here in the UK and in France and Sweden and are just about to come out in the States. The email address can't be changed. But I hope that all of you would exercise caution on the internet and wouldn't email or chat with people you don't know. There are some really freaky types out there. This boy seems harmless enough but the thought that anyone would be irresponsible enough to meet up with someone anywhere just because they share an email address with a character in a book is seriously not cool. Please, please, please be careful.
OK, lecture over now. Josie and Lady Julieanne, sorry, I still haven't got those CDs in the post because I'm lame. I will make it happen this week.
Now Seth Cohen is calling to me and I'm powerless to resist...
Love Sarra x
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Let's Get Lost goes on sale in the UK tomorrow!
I'm proud to announce that Let's Get Lost is available to buy from all good bookshops tomorrow, including Ottakers where it's Book Of The Month.
Although I love all my books equally, I'm especially proud of Let's Get Lost as there were times when I thought I'd never finish it. I guess this is the book that most made me feel like a proper writer as I put so much of myself in to it.
It's about a girl called Isabel who doesn't seem very likeable. She's one of the popular girls at school, the meanest of the mean girls. She rules her friends with an iron fist and a divide and rule philosophy. Despises her family. Keeps herself heartless and hard. Then she meets a boy called Smith and begins to unravel. All of us like to present a front to the world and keep the undesirable stuff hidden, but Isabel has it the wrong way round. And Smith finds her gooey soft centre, stirs it around and all of her secrets start spilling out.
I started the book about three months after my mother died and it was too painful and difficult to write. So I took a break to get Diary Of A Crush ready for publication, wrote Pretty Things and then took another look at Let's Get Lost. It's taken me three years to write, gone through about ten different drafts and if I'm brutally honest I cried every day as I wrote the last three chapters. But it's not all doom and gloom and woe is me. Like, all my books you'll find enough to make you smile including caustic one liners, smirky, know-it-all boys and tons of references to The OC.
I'd really love to know what you think of the book and Isabel, in particular. Be sure to review me on Amazon and/or leave a comment here. And Let's Get Lost will be out in the US and Canada in October, I think, of this year.
Smith walked fast with a loping gait, almost bouncing on the soles of his sneakers and I liked that he was so free, so unaware, not knowing that I was looking at him. Like when you’re on the bus and you stare into someone’s front room and you see them watching television or slumped on the sofa and it’s like you’re taking a tiny piece of them home with you.
He ambled into a couple of charity shops and rifled through battered piles of vinyl records and tattered paperbacks. I loitered by the racks of musty smelling polyester dresses - I was going for this whole melting into the walls vibe but I just looked really shifty if the suspicious attention I was getting from the blue rinse brigade manning the tills was anything to go by.
I hadn’t been able to get a good look at him before. It had been dark and there had been quantities of alcohol involved but daylight softened out the slant of his cheekbones and the hard lines of his jaw, so he looked less thuggish. Didn't know anything to lessen the effect of his nose. If you were being kind you'd call it aquiline, if you weren't, you'd call it beaky. And I could see those lips that I'd kissed - how they looked as pillowy as they'd felt. His hair was still ridiculous, he'd obviously never got intimate with a pair of straightening irons. But what I liked about him (and I did appear to like him, even though he had a stupid name and needed to stop kissing girls at parties because he thought they were other girls he'd kissed at other parties) was his serenity. There was something utterly calm about him, no matter how fast his elegant hands leafed through records or pored over books. It was if everything was out of focus except him.
He brushed past me on his way towards the door and I pressed myself against a rail of coats. I waited for the door to shut behind him, then cautiously slunk out in time to see him disappearing into the newsagents next door.
Luckily, I could pretend to read the ads for exotic Swedish massages while I peered through the window and watched Smith buy a packet of cigarettes and some chewing gum. As he was walking down the length of the shop, I realised my cover would be blown so I dived into the nearest doorway, which happened to be a hardware shop and looked with feigned interest at the display of screwdrivers and oooh, power saws. Imagine the damage I could do with one of them.
At first I thought it was the wind brushing against me, but then it happened again, someone was tapping me on the shoulder. Even before I turned round I knew it was him.
I’d forgotten how blue his eyes were. I wanted to compose sonnets in my head about ocean depths and cloudless skies because I was obviously suffering from severe sleep deprivation. He was frowning at me, this little furrowed line popping up between his eyebrows.
I felt like I’d finally been caught shoplifting. My cheeks were burning traffic light red as he fixed me with an intractable look. “Are you following me?”
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Happy new year, you funny little frogs...
Ah, lots of reasons to cheer in 2006. One of my friends tells me that Nostradamus predicted that the world was going to end in August (hopefully not before my birthday on the 8th) but right now I'm excited that the new series of America's Next Top Model is showing in the UK, a new Belle And Sebastian album is coming out next month and Let's Get Lost finally goes on sale on February 6th, I think.It's Book Of The Month at Ottakers so go and buy it there!
I've also heard that it will keep that title when it comes out in the States in October, which I'm really chuffed about. And Diary Of A Crush is being published en Francais by the lovely people at Pocket Jeunesse in March, and I'm being sent to Paris to do some press. Oh la la!
I'm also likely to be doing a panel or something similar in May at the Birmingham Young Readers Event and I hope to be out and about later in the year, possibly at the Edinburgh Festival in August (apocalypses not with standing!)
I've been getting a lot of letters asking for biographical information for book reports. Sadly, my age and marital status are between me and my God, but there is a ton of info about me all over the interpipe. If you google my name, using speechmarks, the first page that comes up has links to an live chat I did with the BBC's Blast programme (and all spelling mistakes and bad punctuation are there's), my US author page at Penguin which has an interview with me and if you go to http://www.hodderkidsauthors.com/manning/, you'll find my very own microsite, which has all sorts of lovely content about my books and will soon have a sneak preview of the first chapter of Let's Get Lost. There really isn't that much else to know about me. I'm a very boring person in real life. Right now, it's Saturday night and I'm about to eat lots of vegetables and watch an old black and white movie (All Aout Eve.)
Oh, and the winners of the haiku competition were.... dum, dum dum... LadyJulieanne and Josie. I'll be emailing you in the next couple of days. And if you were unlucky, turn that frown upside down because I'll do a new competition in the next week or so to win a signed copy of Let's Get Lost.
Keep on keeping on!
Love
Sarra x
I've also heard that it will keep that title when it comes out in the States in October, which I'm really chuffed about. And Diary Of A Crush is being published en Francais by the lovely people at Pocket Jeunesse in March, and I'm being sent to Paris to do some press. Oh la la!
I'm also likely to be doing a panel or something similar in May at the Birmingham Young Readers Event and I hope to be out and about later in the year, possibly at the Edinburgh Festival in August (apocalypses not with standing!)
I've been getting a lot of letters asking for biographical information for book reports. Sadly, my age and marital status are between me and my God, but there is a ton of info about me all over the interpipe. If you google my name, using speechmarks, the first page that comes up has links to an live chat I did with the BBC's Blast programme (and all spelling mistakes and bad punctuation are there's), my US author page at Penguin which has an interview with me and if you go to http://www.hodderkidsauthors.com/manning/, you'll find my very own microsite, which has all sorts of lovely content about my books and will soon have a sneak preview of the first chapter of Let's Get Lost. There really isn't that much else to know about me. I'm a very boring person in real life. Right now, it's Saturday night and I'm about to eat lots of vegetables and watch an old black and white movie (All Aout Eve.)
Oh, and the winners of the haiku competition were.... dum, dum dum... LadyJulieanne and Josie. I'll be emailing you in the next couple of days. And if you were unlucky, turn that frown upside down because I'll do a new competition in the next week or so to win a signed copy of Let's Get Lost.
Keep on keeping on!
Love
Sarra x
Friday, December 23, 2005
And so the year turns a full circle...
Happy Holidays, gentle readers
I hope you all have a stress-free Crimbo, get tons of wonderful gifts and eat as much as you like without feeling bilious.
I'm going to my Dad, who lives about six miles away, and will be cooking Christmas dinner for him and my sister, nieces, maybe my brother and anyone else who's around. Note to self: Remember to pick up the turkey you ordered from M & S.
It's been a very exciting end of year for me as I signed with an agent on Monday. I've never had one, though most writers do, but I seemed to spend so much time doing boring business things and not enough time writing. I now have a film and TV agent too so hopefully this time next year I'll be in Hollywood asking Jake Gyllenhaal if he wouldn't mind just whipping off his top before he auditions. I wish!
I thought it would be sweet to do a little round-up of all my favourite things of the year for your reading pleasure...
Favourite tunes
Milk Bottle Symphony - Saint Etienne
I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star - The Boy Least Likely To
I Never - Rilo Kiley
Hung Up - Madonna
The Only One - Ready Made FC
Travellin' Song - Bright Eyes
Another Sunny Day - Belle And Sebastian
Favourite Books
The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire
Twins by Marcy Dermansky
Hairstyles Of The Damned by Joe Meno
Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Favourite TV shows
Veronica Mars
Lost
The O.C (Seth + Summer 4 Eva!)
Gilmore Girls
House
Little Britain
Alias
(God, I love my US TV!)
Favourite films
Serenity
Me, You And Everyone We Know
2046
Sin City
I haven't seen a lot of films this year, mostly DVDs but there are a ton coming out in the UK soon that I want to seel I Walk The Line, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, The Producers, Memoirs Of A Geisha and March Of The Penguins, aw!
So, as I draw to a close, I wanted to do something a little special to finish my last post of the year. I always make a mix CD that I send out with my Christmas cards that has my favourite songs from the year. All the tunes I mentioned above are on the 2005 one, plus some others and you could win a copy of it. Yes, you! All I want you to do is leave a comment but it has to be a haiku about one of your favourite things of the year. Don't know what a haiku is? Look it up in a dictionary. And don't forget to include your email address. (There could be more than one winner too!)
So, happy holidays once again and see you in the New Year.
Love
Sarra
I hope you all have a stress-free Crimbo, get tons of wonderful gifts and eat as much as you like without feeling bilious.
I'm going to my Dad, who lives about six miles away, and will be cooking Christmas dinner for him and my sister, nieces, maybe my brother and anyone else who's around. Note to self: Remember to pick up the turkey you ordered from M & S.
It's been a very exciting end of year for me as I signed with an agent on Monday. I've never had one, though most writers do, but I seemed to spend so much time doing boring business things and not enough time writing. I now have a film and TV agent too so hopefully this time next year I'll be in Hollywood asking Jake Gyllenhaal if he wouldn't mind just whipping off his top before he auditions. I wish!
I thought it would be sweet to do a little round-up of all my favourite things of the year for your reading pleasure...
Favourite tunes
Milk Bottle Symphony - Saint Etienne
I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star - The Boy Least Likely To
I Never - Rilo Kiley
Hung Up - Madonna
The Only One - Ready Made FC
Travellin' Song - Bright Eyes
Another Sunny Day - Belle And Sebastian
Favourite Books
The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire
Twins by Marcy Dermansky
Hairstyles Of The Damned by Joe Meno
Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Favourite TV shows
Veronica Mars
Lost
The O.C (Seth + Summer 4 Eva!)
Gilmore Girls
House
Little Britain
Alias
(God, I love my US TV!)
Favourite films
Serenity
Me, You And Everyone We Know
2046
Sin City
I haven't seen a lot of films this year, mostly DVDs but there are a ton coming out in the UK soon that I want to seel I Walk The Line, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, The Producers, Memoirs Of A Geisha and March Of The Penguins, aw!
So, as I draw to a close, I wanted to do something a little special to finish my last post of the year. I always make a mix CD that I send out with my Christmas cards that has my favourite songs from the year. All the tunes I mentioned above are on the 2005 one, plus some others and you could win a copy of it. Yes, you! All I want you to do is leave a comment but it has to be a haiku about one of your favourite things of the year. Don't know what a haiku is? Look it up in a dictionary. And don't forget to include your email address. (There could be more than one winner too!)
So, happy holidays once again and see you in the New Year.
Love
Sarra
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Well, it must be Saturday...
I'm actually remembering to update in a timely, every seven days fashion this week. I could be looking at tiles in a big bathroom shop on the Holloway Road (my shower cubicle is on the verge of imminent collapse) but instead I'm munching toast and staying indoors where it's warm and I can rip some tunes (currently Snow Patrol) on to my iPod. Actually I've just come back from the gym and I have that annoying, post-swim closed up ear thing going on. I know when I least expect it a warm trickle of water will suddenly run out of my ear, which usually feels quite pleasant.
I'm gearing up for the end of the year, in that I'm thinking about all the great songs and books and films I've seen so I can do a great, big list for my last post of 2005. But when I'm not doing that, I'm very hard at work. I've just had the outline for my next book approved and I'm going to start on that this week. I don't want to give too much away but it's going to be a little lighter than Let's Get Lost and I'm going to write it from the boy's POV. Except it's not so much boy meets girl as boy is related to girl and she's driving him to an early grave. There probably won't be as much dry humping in this book as my other ones but I hope that won't put you off.
And now my sofa and the evil crack this is Sudoku is calling to me...
Love
Sarra x
I'm gearing up for the end of the year, in that I'm thinking about all the great songs and books and films I've seen so I can do a great, big list for my last post of 2005. But when I'm not doing that, I'm very hard at work. I've just had the outline for my next book approved and I'm going to start on that this week. I don't want to give too much away but it's going to be a little lighter than Let's Get Lost and I'm going to write it from the boy's POV. Except it's not so much boy meets girl as boy is related to girl and she's driving him to an early grave. There probably won't be as much dry humping in this book as my other ones but I hope that won't put you off.
And now my sofa and the evil crack this is Sudoku is calling to me...
Love
Sarra x
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Stop, look and listen...
Obviously my vow to be more diligent about posting here went horribly wrong. But it's late Saturday afternoon, the central heating's toasty, I'm in my Old Navy micro-fleece PJ bottoms and the most wild thing I'm going to do this evening is order a Chinese even though I didn't go to the gym today. It's like emo never happened!
If that sounds terribly unglam, I did go to LA a couple of weeks ago to write a piece for British ELLE. It took almost a day to get threre door to door, I stayed in Hollywood for 48 hours, then took another day to get home. And woah, the jetlag!
At the moment I'm working on an outline for my next book. I know a lot of you are interested in being writers so you might find this useful but when I want my publishers to approve my next idea I give them a chapter by chapter synopsis of what the book will be about and also use that as my outline for when I write the book. I start off with the title, then the basic premise (which is a paragraph summing up the entire book in a couple of lines) and then do a really detailed breakdown of what happens in each chapter. This is a really good way of getting your idea right and thinking about how you want to layer the plot and build the suspense. When I'm doing my outlines, I usually find myself coming up with actual bits of dialogue and stuff (why, yes that would be the technical term!) that usually end up in the book too.
The basic premise for Let's Get Lost was this:
This is a poignant but snarky story about losing your mother, when you’ve just started the necessary process of pushing her away in order to discover who you are. It’s not page after page of weepy moping and whining. Isabel is queen bee of a posse of teen divas, in embroiled in a dirtybadwrong love affair with an older boy and has a bratty little brother to deal with. But her biggest stumbling block is a father who can’t handle a teenage daughter and always observes a six inch personal space bubble every time they’re in the same room but at the heart of it all, is a story about a girl trying to find sense in something that is completely senseless.
Talking of Let's Get Lost, the cover is now my user pic. And the book is available for pre-order on www.amazon.co.uk. And that's about all the news that's fit to print...
Love
Sarra x
If that sounds terribly unglam, I did go to LA a couple of weeks ago to write a piece for British ELLE. It took almost a day to get threre door to door, I stayed in Hollywood for 48 hours, then took another day to get home. And woah, the jetlag!
At the moment I'm working on an outline for my next book. I know a lot of you are interested in being writers so you might find this useful but when I want my publishers to approve my next idea I give them a chapter by chapter synopsis of what the book will be about and also use that as my outline for when I write the book. I start off with the title, then the basic premise (which is a paragraph summing up the entire book in a couple of lines) and then do a really detailed breakdown of what happens in each chapter. This is a really good way of getting your idea right and thinking about how you want to layer the plot and build the suspense. When I'm doing my outlines, I usually find myself coming up with actual bits of dialogue and stuff (why, yes that would be the technical term!) that usually end up in the book too.
The basic premise for Let's Get Lost was this:
This is a poignant but snarky story about losing your mother, when you’ve just started the necessary process of pushing her away in order to discover who you are. It’s not page after page of weepy moping and whining. Isabel is queen bee of a posse of teen divas, in embroiled in a dirtybadwrong love affair with an older boy and has a bratty little brother to deal with. But her biggest stumbling block is a father who can’t handle a teenage daughter and always observes a six inch personal space bubble every time they’re in the same room but at the heart of it all, is a story about a girl trying to find sense in something that is completely senseless.
Talking of Let's Get Lost, the cover is now my user pic. And the book is available for pre-order on www.amazon.co.uk. And that's about all the news that's fit to print...
Love
Sarra x
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